INSTANT REACTION: Iowa State 29, UNI 26 (3OT)

[CyTwins]

Man Rose is so good

 

[cycloneworld]

I think Dan Wolken with USA Today summed it up perfectly.

NOOOOOO Iowa
Northern Iowa had plenty of chances Saturday to pull a huge shocker over No. 24 Iowa State, but you just had a feeling they wasted their biggest opportunity in the second overtime when coach Mark Farley declined to go for a two-point conversion that would have ended the game and instead decided to kick an extra point to send it into a third overtime. Sorry, Coach Farley, but that’s a bad decision when you’re a big underdog with nothing to lose and it predictably led to the Cyclones closing it out 29-26.

Given that Iowa State dominated the game statistically (463-262 advantage in offense), cutting it so close on the scoreboard is probably not something to worry about. But with so much expected from the Cyclones this season — many pundits have pegged them the third-best team in the Big 12 — it’s definitely an underwhelming start.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ys-week-1-tennessee-georgia-state/2183223001/

 

[CyFy]

Now that people have had a night to sleep on it lets look at the game a little closer. We ended this game with 500 yes of offense. Our backs averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Our QB completed 75% of his passes for a 9 yd average (which is more impressive with no long balls to offset) the defense allowed 1.1 ypc and was really good all game.

I get the whole we got lucky to win becasue of that fumble at the end. At the same time we missed a 31 yrd fg that would have win it, that fumble returned for a td was a joke to me, Purdy missed an easy td pass, and a TD was called back for a pretty minor hold that wouldn't have affected the play at all. Add in a freshman kicker hitting a 50 and 49 harder in his first game.

This is a game we would have lost andlost bad 4-5 years ago. Instead we found a way to win.

We were vanilla as can be and the offense still had 500 yards. We ran a zone read to the right like 25 times with Purdy running 0 times and still averaged 4.5 ypc. The offense will be fine if we can no get dumb penalties and mistakes. The helmet coming off, the blindside block, and a couple other penalties stopped really good drives.

I don't feel great about what it took to win but I honestly am not concerned yet.

 

[FinalFourCy]

That’s exactly what we want and is the best coaching philosophy to have for a team like Iowa state to compete for conference titles.

Don’t confuse ball-control and conservative with rudimentary and constipated. We’re getting more of the latter. We passed it 41 times. We passed for it on 4th and 1 from mid-field with just over 3 minutes in a half of a close game in which the run game was working (after passing on 3rd and 1). The final drive of the fourth quarter had horrible call structure given the circumstances.

Coaches like Snyder weren’t boring or vanilla. He was creative and his plays generally setup beautifully. We’re moderately talented, but verge on directionless, similar to previous seasons. If this constipation limits the team to razor thin margins against a FCS team, it will lead to needless losses against P5 teams (as we’ve seen).